The sidewalk and the street, the concrete and the clay

[venta]

Last night's hurried bung-it-in-the-oven dinner was intended to be baked haddock with a herby crust. Breadcrumbs, mix in chopped herbs and olive oil, slap on top of fish, shove in oven. Done.

Except... well. The sliced bread had gone all pernicious. It looked fine, but had stealthily gone colourfully and fluffily off behind all the opaque bits of the plastic bag. No breadcrumbs :(

Except, lurking in the bread bin, overlooked, was the tiny, nobbly end of Saturday's baguette. Baguettes go a bit hard and dry when you've had them more than 35 minutes, so Saturday's French bready-product was rock solid.

I normally make breadcrumbs from fresh bread, rubbing slices between my hands. Occasionally, if I'm feeling very together, I put the slices out to go a little stale first. But four day old baguette? Not a chance.

On a whim, I tried grating it with a coarse grater. Bingo! A suitable-sized pile of breadcrumbs in no time. Probably even easier than normal.

Maybe everyone else already makes breadcrumbs like this. I just thought I'd mention it :)

Comments

[marjory.livejournal.com]

Hee!

I mostly only use breadcrumby stuff at Christmas for the stuffing. This involves buying a bloomer and letting it go stale whilst repeatedly fending people off from consuming it in the meantime. We're terribly non eco-friendly and put the surviving bread through a food processor, although your method sounds less wasteful.

[venta.livejournal.com]

My method also sounds more suitable for someone who doesn't own a food processor ;)

That's the way, that's the way it's meant to be

[sushidog.livejournal.com]

I have a coffee grinder (not sure I've ever ground coffee with it, mind you), which would probably do the job, although with rather more noise!
If it helps, breadcrumbs can be bagged and frozen, and used straight from the freezer.

[venta.livejournal.com]

One kudo to you.

Nothing can be frozen! Nothing!

(I'm trying to empty the freezer so I can defrost its rather sorry iced-up arse, but somehow more things keep creeping in to fill the space...)

Re: That's the way, that's the way it's meant to be

[undyingking.livejournal.com]

If they're fairly dry to start with, they can be kept in the fridge in a plastic tub for (current experiment suggests) at least six months with no harm done.

[venta.livejournal.com]

The answer to "how dry is fairly dry?" is "slightly more dry than they were last time I tried doing this" :(

[undyingking.livejournal.com]

:( indeed, I feel your pain (as they say in France).

[venta.livejournal.com]

<SFX: Groans>

[feanelwa.livejournal.com]

My mum used to save up crusts in the freezer and then defrost them and sling them in the blender for Christmas stuffing.

[venta.livejournal.com]

My old blender used to have a another bit (instead of the jug) which was intended to be a small grinder and was brilliant for doing breadcrumbs. My current blender fits on top of a Kenwood, and is a bit rubbish for making breadcrumbs. It does the job, but not terribly satisfactorily.

[phlebas.livejournal.com]

Ah, I was thinking the coffee grinder fitting for my blender would probably do well.
(it isn't the Kevin Rowland version, is it?)

[venta.livejournal.com]

I don't know who Kevin Rowland is :) My blender is a standard Kenwood attachment. I don't know if they do a coffee grinder to fit my model (Kenwood do make a food processor attachment, but it only fits snazzier and more upmarket models than mine).

[phlebas.livejournal.com]

Singer with Dexys Midnight Runners (now just Dexys, I gather; I don't know if they follow the rule), released a very peculiar solo album of covers in 1999, of which that was a highlight. Famously disturbing album cover.

[venta.livejournal.com]

Ah, you weren't asking about the version of the blender. I was a bit puzzled :)

NP: Kevin Rowland - Concrete And Clay

No, I've never heard that before. I just know the Unit4+2 version.

I do recognise the album cover, though. Mostly from its repeated appearance on "terrible album cover" lists :)

[ringbark.livejournal.com]

In my era, it was Randy Edelman. He also did Uptown Uptempo Woman. As in "You're an uptown, uptempo woman, I'm a downtown, downbeat guy."

As for crumbs, baguettes and fishy stuff, I have nowt to say.

[dave [earth.li] (from livejournal.com)]

When you say 'On top of a kenwood', would One of these (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Kenwood-AT320A-Chopper-Attachment-Additional/dp/B000C3MOCM/ref=sr_1_1?s=kitchen&ie=UTF8&qid=1340957272&sr=1-1) fit on the same kenwood? It's not cheap but smaller than another whole device, and comes with sealable jars.

[lnr]

I normally do breadcrumbs in the food processor :)

[venta.livejournal.com]

I have been considering buying a food processor, but have not yet managed to magic up enough space in the kitchen to put such a thing :)

[rabbit1080.livejournal.com]

I don't have a food processor as there's enough techno-gubbins around here already.

Until last weekend I had a meat-grinder (apparently it wasn't dishwasher-safe). For soups and stuff, a potato-masher is good enough.

I do own an ok carving-knife. Your idea of grating bread to make bread-crumbs sounds good - will have to try it :)

[venta.livejournal.com]

Your household probably doesn't use the blender to make milkshake as often as ours does, then :)

[rabbit1080.livejournal.com]

Heh, probably not. I've been trying to use this whisk to froth milk but a blender's probably better.
http://www.everten.com.au/kuhn-rikon-palm-whisk-small.html

[mister-jack.livejournal.com]

I.leave bread on the side until stale and then apply the blender.

[drdoug.livejournal.com]

I think most people aren't keen on using graters to make breadcrumbs and prefer blenders. (I certainly do.) This may have Biblical roots: Grater love hath no man, etc.

[thegreenman.livejournal.com]

Sliced Bread!!!!
SLICED BREAD!!!!!!!

You buy white slice plastic innabag?
Have you no shame?

[venta.livejournal.com]

I lack not shame, but the ability to get to a decent bakery while working full time. If you could arrange for the one up the road (called The Village Bakery, it's very nice) to be open in the evenings that'd be lovely...

[venta.livejournal.com]

Also no, as it happens, it was brown sliced bread in a bag.

[uitlander]

Never were the words beneath my feet begin to crumble more appropriate. I usually make breadcrumbs this way. It seems odd to think you'd use fresh bread for this purpose.

[undyingking.livejournal.com]

Mm, fresh breadcrumbs have their culinary purpose but it's not the same as the purpose of dry breadcrumbs.

I would use fresh breadcrumbs in a mix for eg. helping a nut loaf texture, but I'd use dry ones for a crust-type effect.

[venta.livejournal.com]

Yes. My most common breadcrumb-use scenario is making stuffing, for which I'd want fresh crumbs.